If You're Ever Lost
by misswhiteblack
Summary: He just wants to bring her home ... JamesOlly - One-Shot


_For Vicky who adores JamesOlly._

* * *

><p><strong>If you're ever lost<strong>  
>&amp;&amp; find yourself all alone<br>I'd search forever  
>Just to bring you home<br>_- I'd Come for You, Nickleback_

**.**

James Sirius Potter is not normally the worrying kind and he is certainly not the kind to be wandering around the streets in the middle of the night whilst the rain is torrential. He's soaked through but he doesn't seem to notice as he trawls around different parts of London occasionally apparating to another part with a determined look on his face. Every street he walks is lined with muggle pubs and clubs and he goes into each of them searching. He keeps getting accosted by drunken girls who throw themselves at him cooing away and asking him what is wrong. He never answers them and instead just shrugs them off, scours the establishment and then leaves again puzzling everyone who sees him.

James doesn't have to explain himself to any of these muggles and he doesn't have the time to interact with them politely at all. He just needs to find Olly and take her home before she did anything silly. He's worried about her which is unusual because Olly isn't the kind of girl people worry about and James has been her best friend their entire lives and they've been a couple of the last four years so he knows how capable she is of looking after herself. He was still worried because of the state she was in and although he wanted to find her he couldn't blame her for her reaction. He is sure he would react the same way in he was in her shoes.

Despairing with the muggle bars he apparates straight to Merlin's Sparkly Socks, a Wizarding club that he and Olly often frequent with their friends and family members. It's Saturday night so the place is heaving but he's James Sirius Potter, eldest son of Harry Potter and beater for Puddlemere United so the crowd parts before him to allow him access straight to the bar. An old friend from school, Eamonn Finnegan is standing at the bar eyeing those around him suspiciously as though he suspected something fishy going on.

"Hey Eamonn," James says wearily coming to stand next to him, "Olly isn't in here is she?"

Eamonn was startled slightly by the abrupt question but he took one look at James' face and decided that now maybe wasn't the time to joke around about his lack of manners.

"I haven't seen her," Eamonn replies warily. It was true that he hadn't seen Olly at all that night and as he was what muggles called a bouncer at the club he saw everyone. James expression made him worry though and he wondered what kind of trouble Olly could have gotten herself into now.

"Thanks anyway," James tells him and turns to leave. He stops abruptly and turns back to Eamonn. "If you see her could you tell her that I'm looking for her and possibly find someone to bring her home?"

"Of course," Eamonn says now more confused than ever, "but why can't Olly find her own way home?"

James sighs and rakes a hand through his hair spraying droplets of water around him. He feels incredible tired and his face is pale and drawn. He kind of wished that he had been able to learn how to use though mobile fellyfone things that Olly had tried to give him. Apparently they were good for staying in touch.

"She'll be too inebriated," he says shortly before he turns away once more leaving Eamonn just as puzzled as any of the muggles in the bars and clubs he had already search through.

Back out on the street the rain still hasn't ceased and he shivers a little as he is immediately soaked through again. In had been roasting inside the club and the rain felt like ice now slipping down his back. He needed to find her.

"James," calls a familiar voice as he is about to apparate and he swings around to see his little sister Lily forcing her way out of the club. She is immediately soaked in the torrential rain and her red dress clings to her body as though it's been painted on.

She comes up to him with a frown creasing behind her eyebrows and in that moment James realises why people always say how much they look alike something he had just never understood before. He doesn't mention this though he doesn't open his mouth because he's just desperate to be on his way because he needs to find Olly before she does something she might regret. You see he knows her far too well to blithely think that everything will be alright because she's famous so she is followed by photographers and she is angry to she might expose herself amongst muggles and she's flighty so she might just run and run and never look back.

"What's wrong?" Lily eventually asks him as the raindrops slide down her freckled nose to drip off at the end and she's shivering a little in icy rain.

"Have you seen Olly?" he asks her his panic so deeply set in that he doesn't bother about whether he'll upset his sister or not. That was why he was trawling the streets alone looking for her. He couldn't bear to worry anyone else.

"No," Lily tells him the crease between her eyes deepening. "What's wrong?"

James hesitates because he knows how much trouble he'll get into for telling anyone especially a member of his family. You see telling one Weasley or one Potter anything is like telling the entire family and also the Longbottoms by default but he's almost too worried to care.

"Kerr's in St. Mungo's again," James explains, "and she's unconscious, really badly injured. Blaise is also in there but he's not too banged up. Olly's on a spree and I have no idea where."

Lily sinks her teeth into her bottom lip because it's a bit of a hard situation to comment on. Olly's mother Kerr is an Auror, one of the best and, before the reconciliation between her and Blaise Zabini, had also been the most work obsessed. She had been in St. Mungo's more times than anyone could count. Harry as the head of the Auror had tried to get her to take a desk job but she had refused, stating that she was the best field agent he had and that she was no way she was giving it up to sit behind some stuffy desk all the time.

"How is she?" Lily asks shuddering again from the cold.

"The Healers are worried," James informs her briefly. "I just need to find Olly. We went to St. Mungo's and she took one look at her mum lying there again and she ran."

"Who is with Kerr then?"

"Blaise is already up and walking around and Jake is there too with Taggie. I just need to get Olly before she does anything silly. I've been everywhere."

"Have you looked in the Cirque du Soir in Soho?" Lily asks after a moment of thought.

"Where?"

"Cirque du Soir," Lily repeats herself her hair now hanging around her face like rats' tails, "Olly and I are members there. It's where I'd go if I wanted to be alone because you have to be a member to get in."

"Fucking great," James curses knowing he has no chance of getting into a club.

"Are you a wizard or what?" Lily rolls her eyes at her older brother. "It's a muggle club. Just confund the guys on the doors and go and get her."

James looks at his sister for a moment as though not really seeing her as he takes in what she is saying and he's willing to try anything just to get Olly. So he nods at his sister and turns on his heel. He's sucked into darkness that has long since stopped bothering him until he finds himself standing in the middle of an alleyway right next to the Cirque du Soir.

A noise from behind him makes him turn and he can see three figures in the alleyway, two men and one women. He can see and hear the fight that the woman is giving to the two men but her drunken punches do not meet their targets. He can hear the way they are laughing, foggy with drink. James frowns as he perceives one of the men holding the woman tightly against him and he is without a moment of doubt that whatever they are doing to her she certainly doesn't want them to do it.

James approaches them cautiously pulling his wand out of his pocket just to be on the safe side. Of course he isn't allowed to curse muggles but if they weren't muggles he wants to be on his guard. The woman's shrieks rent the air then and the man in front of her is laughing at her attempts to kick him and James is suddenly running forward. With a move that would have made the English rugby coach sign him up on the spot James tackles the first man knocking him to the ground, giving him a hearty punch in the face before turning on the other assailant who has already let go of the woman and run off down the alley.

James looks down at the woman slumped on the ground, her shoulders shaking with her sob. Her jeans a ripped beyond decency and James can see huge claw marks on her creamy skin of her inner thighs where the man had scraped at her. He crouches down beside her to sweep back her long black hair from her face.

There is nothing like the shock he feels when familiar blue eyes look at him swimming in tears, her face whiter than usual and her lips trembling. It's as though everything is now moving in slow motion. There's a dark smudge on her face which could be a bruise and blood is leaking from a split lip.

The roar he lets out is pure fury and he watches her eyes close in pain and the tears spill down her cheeks in rapid succession. He turns to the man he tackled to the floor and lays into him furious pounding at his face and not caring when he hears his nose shattered or his cheekbone crack or his jaw fracture. At first the thwacks sound painful but eventually they sound wet and dull as blood sprays from his nose, covering his face. His own knuckles seem to almost give way under his assault and he eventually gives his final punch leaving the man unconscious but not quite dead.

He turns back to where Olly sits on the damp and disgusting floor of the alleyway, her legs splayed out under her, emotionlessly watching the scene before her through slightly glazed eyes. He gathers her to him and she makes absolutely no protest as she simply stares at the man on the ground who isn't recognisable any more. He steps away from the unmoving man feeling no regret for him as he holds Olly in his arms.

"Are you up to apparating if I take you?" he asks her gently trying to hard not to let his voice wobble as she clutches to him and he only wishes he had found her sooner because he knows that she is just as reckless as her mother. He's trembling in anger and he's not sure whether she is trembling too or whether it's just a result of him. He watches her nod absently as though she isn't really in her body and instead somewhere trying to pretend that none of that had just happened.

He holds her closer and apparates for the final time that night. They land slightly unsteadily into the living room and James looks around. Nothing has changed since he had come to check whether Olly was here and it seems so strange that it's exactly the same when so much has happened.

Gently he carries Olly through the Georgian townhouse that is their home and up the stairs into the bathroom taking great care not to hit her head on the doorframe as he passes through. Olly doesn't question him as he clambers into the bathtub with her and settles her with him directly under the shower head. He pulls his wand from his pocket and in one flick the water is pouring down on both of them, far warmer than the rain had been.

He hears Olly gasp slightly as though suddenly brought to her senses and she shuddering violently. He holds her tightly to him hardly daring to let her go and waits until the shuddering fades away listening quietly to the sound of the water battering down onto them.

"James," her wavering voice interrupts his thoughts which are a mishmash of pain and hatred.

"I'm here, Olly," he quietly soothes her, "I'm here."

"I'm okay," she tells him her voice only a little stronger. "I'll be okay. I ..."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," James tells her quickly because he doesn't want her to feel pressured and he isn't even sure if he wants to hear it. He isn't even sure exactly what happened to her and he thinks he might die if she confirms it.

"I shouldn't have been so stupid," she berates herself in a whisper. "I'm just as reckless as my mum."

"You were upset, baby," he says into her hair trying to calm, trying to calm himself.

"Don't tell anyone."

"I won't tell," he promises even though he isn't ever sure what happened but he's certain he never wants to tell another living soul especially not when Olly's own pride is at stake.

"You came for me," she whispers quietly into his chest and her shoulders are starting to shake once more as sobs cease her body. "You came for me."

James clutches her tightly to him desperate to soothe her as he presses a kiss down onto the wet hair of her head. They're both shaking he is sure, Olly with sobs and himself with anger. He holds her against his chest tightly not wanting to relax his grip on her even for a moment.

"Olly, I'll always come for you," he says into her hair as he feels his own eyes well and tears escape to spill down his cheeks. He clutches her all the tighter as the tears mingle with the water from the shower above them, taking them clean of his face and probably into her hair. He rocks her slightly although he's not sure why and he's desperately worried by the gasp sounds she is now making, like she can't breathe for sobbing.

They stay that way for more than a few minutes but James can't even comprehend keeping track of time. Eventually Olly's sobbing slows and he stops rocking her, pressing random kisses into her hair. He loosens his grip on her just a little but enough for her to lean back against his arm instead of being huddled into his chest. He looks down at her with the water droplets bouncing of the pale skin of her face. He takes in her bruised face and bloody lip and has to bite his lip in order not to roar again.

She averts her eyes from him when he looks at her and maybe all she is feeling is shame because she was stupid enough to get herself into that situation, stupid enough to drop her wand at St. Mungo's and go charging around London drunk, on her own and wandless. He can't stand it when she averts her eyes because she has nothing to feel ashamed of so he put a hand under her chin and lifts it slightly so she looks at him.

Her blue eyes are hesitant but he leans in and gentle presses a kiss to her lips, careful to avoid the busted part. He withdraws and she watches him for a moment before she turns her attention to the hand that has left her chin to rest on her hip. He sees the way her eyes widen when she catches sight of the ripped open, bloody knuckles which aren't in any healthy state and he doesn't resist when she takes his hand.

"Your knuckles are bloody," she whispers and he watches her silently with the water droplets running off her face as she presses a kiss to the only bit of his hand not encrusted with blood. It hurts, even the light pressure of her lips and the way his hand is elevated although his adrenaline had stopped him realising until this point. It doesn't matter though because as he looks at her he knows he'd have beat the shit out of a hundred men if he could just prevent what had happened.

"I love you," he tells her. "I would do anything for you."

She looks at him for a moment and she knows that it's true because tonight he might have just beaten someone to death with his bare hands, all for her.

"I know. I love you too."


End file.
